Avatar and Isaac Asimov

Gaia is a fictional planet described in the book Foundation's Edge (1982) and referred to in Foundation and Earth (1986), by Isaac Asimov. The name is derived from the Gaia hypothesis, which is itself eponymous to Gaia, the Earth Goddess.

 

…The inhabitants of Gaia were all tied together into a telepathic group consciousness when it was founded; this consciousness was eventually extended to the non-human life, and later to the inorganic material of the planet.

 

…Gaia has no written records; every amount of information is stored in the collective consciousness. Naturally, a good deal of this is stored in humans and other large-brained animals, but some is stored in inanimate objects such as water, geological features, or trees. Historical records are based on the memories of individuals stored forever in the collective consciousness. Any part of Gaia can access these memories directly, as if they were just another part of their own mind.

 

The collective consciousness can be alerted to an impending volcanic eruption because of the consciousness of the inanimate matter involved, and take the necessary precautions. Likewise, weather can also be carefully controlled.

 

Wikipedia